HAITIAN AIRLINES have been banned from US skies following a US Federal Aviation Administration judgement that the country's national aviation authority safety-oversight standards are "unacceptable". The Philippines has effectively been given a warning about the same issue.
FAA foreign-safety decisions are given ratings, based on each country's effectiveness in applying International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety-surveillance standards. The FAA banned nine countries in 1994.
The FAA's "conditional" rating - applied to the Philippines - indicates a failure to apply ICAO standards, but a government's agreement to work with the FAA to implement corrective measures. The "unacceptable" rating given to Haiti means that there is no agreement to work with the FAA to correct inadequacies, so its airlines are banned from US airspace. Haiti Trans Air, which operates two Boeing 727-200s, does not fly to the USA.
Source: Flight International
